LISTSERV 16.0 - HUNGERSERMONSTARTERS Archives

The lessons for each Sunday in the church year proclaim God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Also derived from a Sunday’s texts are lessons for the Christ-inspired and Christ-like life of God’s people. The comments here will help you find hunger-related threads – sermon starters – among the themes of this day’s texts. (We're presuming you have already done your exegetical work on the texts.) God bless your proclamation (and teaching) of what is most certainly true!

Amos 5 lends itself easily to a reflection on hunger and poverty. Like last week’s texts that naturally led to thoughts on reforming the church, this text challenges traditional thoughts about piety. Our songs or worship practices matter much less than our attitude towards those who are poor and vulnerable (let the worship wars cease!). According to Amos 5 (see especially vv. 21-24), if our worship is not accompanied by a true quest for justice, our songs are simply noise and our special days despicable (All Saints Day, anyone?). Amos 5 helps us understand what it means in the Gospel when Jesus tells his people to be prepared for his return. Our wicks will be trimmed and our lamps full of oil if we seek justice and let righteousness flow like a stream.

This week’s texts are texts of judgment. They challenge us to think about what we hold dearest and most valuable. The prophecy from Zephaniah relies heavily on Amos 5 and greatly expands his oracle. Amos 5, recall, has some of the strongest articulations of God’s demand for justice and asserts that Israelite worship is detestable because the people do not care for those who are poor and vulnerable. Zephaniah’s prophecy takes an even fiercer stance, asserting that the entire world will be consumed in God’s wrath (see esp. v. 18). Zephaniah calls out Israel for its complacency and tells the people of God that their wealth and land will do them no good when God comes to judge. Similarly, the Gospel challenges us to think about how we use our gifts. In the United States, even in the midst of the worst economic situation in 80 years, most of us enjoy a level of wealth that is foreign to much of the Global South. How are we putting that wealth to use? What would the king say to you and me on his return?